It has been six months since my last post — I’ve been busy!

The summer months were spent working on the 5^th edition of Interior Design Visual Presentation. I made the early September deadline and then went back for a busy fall semester at school. What a whirlwind!

Working on a new edition of the presentation book involves checking out what is going on in the design world; this means spending time visiting design firms and trying to catch up with current practice. I learn so much from doing this because my work as an instructor tends to keep me in the classroom and meetings for most of the school year –getting out there to see what is really going on is fascinating.

So what’s new? Mostly technology and speed. By this I mean that the big-picture process of design has not changed but the way that process is facilitated has evolved as technology has evolved. BIM, modeling and digital imagining software has changed professional practice and has led to expectations that projects move very quickly through design (and construction).

Most larger architecture and design studios are using Revit; AutoCAD is used in some firms along (with additional drawing/modeling software).  Many firms have moved away from physical presentation boards to digital presentations. 3D printing and digital fabrication have changed the way scale models are made. And, while Revit rendering is increasingly common, many firms supplement that with SketchUp and Photoshop rendering. Interstingly, some firms create fully detailed Revit models and export those into SketchUp to create quick color and detail studies. Similarly some firms use Photoshop to render images created in CAD/BIM software.

Several design firms I met with indicated that they find that the speed and ease of working with SketchUp and Photoshop renderings allows them to create multiple approaches for clients. Turning layers on and off in both SketchUp and Photoshop can be used to show clients varying options.

Examples of this are shown below with two floor finish options that can be displayed by toggling on/off the appropriate floor plan layers.

On the top is a floor plan option with the wood floor added as a pattern. The plan below has a different lighter wood floor visible. This was done by using an adjustment layer following the steps below and illustrated above

1 Go to the Layer (in the Layer Palette) that contains the material or color to be changed and make a selection by clicking on the black and white L­­ayer Mask.

2 Click on the Create a New Layer Icon and select “Hue/Saturation” from the drop down menu. The Hue/Saturation option brings up hue sliders that are used to change the hue (color).

With the new lighter floor hue selected the layer containing the darker floor can be turned off (click the eye icon to the left of the layer palette).

The 5th edition will focus on use of “Pattern Fills” to render in Photoshop rather than “Pasting-In” images. A Pattern Fill layer is created by clicking on the round “Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer” icon and selecting “Pattern”. With Pattern selected for the new layer, the last Pattern created is automatically pasted into the selection. However, the lever to the right of the pattern icon (outlined in yellow) can be used to scroll to other patterns. Also a scale device in the pattern window allows for the pattern to be scaled prior to insertion. I like having the option of scaling the pattern here while rendering  -it is a quick, easy option.